Pizza Express Restaurants Have Another 23 Closures on the Menu | Eater London

"Once an iconic high‑street pizza chain that dominated British casual dining in the 1990s and early 2000s, the business was brought low by decades of private‑equity borrowing and then the COVID‑19 pandemic: it amassed over £1.1bn of debt built up over 27 years of buyouts, reported a pre‑pandemic annual loss of about £350m in 2019, and has closed dozens of sites — around 97 since the start of the pandemic with a further 23 planned — leading to large job losses. After its sale value fell below external debt, the private‑equity owner exited and the company pursued extensive restaurant closures and a debt‑for‑equity restructuring in the hope of securing a viable future, leaving its formerly dominant high‑street status badly diminished." - James Hansen